Digby is a town in the
Western District of
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
, Australia. The town is in the
Shire of Glenelg
The Shire of Glenelg is a local government area in the Barwon South West region of Victoria, Australia, located in the south-western part of the state. It covers an area of and in June 2018 had a population of 19,665. It includes the towns o ...
, west of the state capital,
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
, on the
Stokes River, a tributary of the
Glenelg. At the
2006 census
6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number.
In mathematics
Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...
, Digby and the surrounding area had a population of 369.
The town is believed to be named either after
Digby, Lincolnshire, in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, or in honour of a legendary early rural Australian identity, "Digby" McCabe.
The
Henty Brothers established the first European settlement in the Digby area in 1837. In 1843, the Woolpack Inn was established near modern Digby; it burnt down in 1887. By 1847 the town consisted of the inn, a
blacksmith
A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such as gates, gr ...
and a series of huts. The town was officially surveyed in 1852.
On 1 June 1858, Digby Post Office opened.
In 1857, a second inn—the Digby Hotel—was established. It still exists today, although it was rebuilt after a fire in 1935.
The Digby
Mechanics Institute was built in 1868 and has continually operated since. The first sitting of the
Supreme Court of Victoria outside Melbourne was in Digby in 1869.
By 1874 the town had a post office, two hotels, four shops and a school.
Traditional ownership
The formally recognised
traditional owners
Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have right ...
for the area in which Digby sits are the
Gunditjmara
The Gunditjmara or Gunditjamara, also known as Dhauwurd Wurrung, are an Aboriginal Australian people of southwestern Victoria. They are the traditional owners of the areas now encompassing Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Woolsthorpe and Portland. Th ...
People
who are represented by the
Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation
The Gunditjmara or Gunditjamara, also known as Dhauwurd Wurrung, are an Aboriginal Australian people of southwestern Victoria. They are the traditional owners of the areas now encompassing Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Woolsthorpe and Portland. Thei ...
.
References
Towns in Victoria (Australia)
{{VictoriaAU-geo-stub